Trust
by 2olluxampora
Summary: Having someone to trust is surprisingly freeing, even if that someone thoroughly embarrasses you at work with chocolate and sparkly stickers.


**Written for QLFC Round 13**

 **Prompt: Rook: Write from the perspective of someone other than a student who lives in Hogwarts: a ghost, a house-elf, a teacher, a portrait, the Sorting Hat, etc.**

 **Extra Prompts: (word) freedom, (dialogue) "What makes you so sure it was me?", (color) steel grey**

 **For Hogwarts:**

 **Duelling Lessons, task #1: Write about trust between two people**

 **Days of the Month - International Men's Day: Write a story featuring all-male characters**

 **Count Your Buttons: (character) Severus Snape**

 **National Princess Day - Zelda: Write about a popular or well-known character**

 **Thanks to Emiliya for beta-ing!**

* * *

"What makes you so sure it was me?"

Harry looked near-comically indignant, and Severus looked away momentarily to hide his smile. It was a miracle he was still alive, if he truly was that oblivious to his utter lack of subtlety.

"You've been sending me all sorts of ridiculous gifts and tokens of affection for a full year now. I would have to be brain-dead, or close to it, not to figure it out immediately," Severus said dryly, taking a seat. It seemed this conversation might take awhile.

Harry just looked at him, starting to open his mouth, and then immediately closing it again. This process repeated itself a few times, and this time, Severus couldn't completely bite back a snicker.

Face reddening, Harry sat down across from him.

"Look, Severus...For what it's worth, I didn't think you'd open it in public like that, and I certainly didn't think..." He winced, probably out of secondhand embarrassment. Severus couldn't blame him, though it made him feel even worse. "Kids are mean, okay? Well, I mean, you know that, I suppose, considering you complain every damn day about how awful they are, but...I wouldn't think you'd be _that_ upset over a couple of twelve year olds laughing at you."

"I'm not _upset_ that children _laughed at me_ ," Severus said crisply, occupying himself by Summoning a pot of tea from the kitchenette. He turned his head slightly, all the better to hide behind his hair.

"Alright, then what's the problem?" Harry leaned forward in his seat a little, as though practically crawling into Severus' lap would get him a more satisfying answer. "Are you upset that I sent it at all?"

"Potter," Severus muttered with a sigh, pouring them both some tea. Naturally, Harry interrupted before he could say anything more.

"Harry," he insisted, giving him a sharp look. "You agreed that you would call me Harry."

Severus briefly considered kicking the insolent brat out of his sitting room altogether, but resisted the fleeting urge, handing him his cup of tea instead. He could remember the days when he never would have let Harry Potter into his sitting room to begin with.

"Right. Harry. As I was saying, you sent me chocolates and a note." He took a bracing sip of tea, barely able to maintain his composure as he recalled the worst of it. "There were heart stickers on the note. I...It looked like a gift from a giggling third year. The _problem_ is that students are now discussing my love life, all thanks to a man who seemed quite passionate about the idea of me deserving my privacy after all I did in the war."

Harry shrugged, inching a little closer to the edge of his chair again, and ran a hand through his absurdly messy hair. Severus clenched his free hand into a fist to keep himself from reaching out and trying to fix it.

"I thought it would be funny," he offered weakly. "Or cute, or something. It was a joke. The stickers, I mean, not the...overall sentiment."

"What the fuck?" Severus breathed, unable to say anything else.

"Sorry," Harry muttered sheepishly. "It was stupid, I know, I'm sorry."

"No, really," Severus murmured, taking a certain sort of satisfaction in how embarrassed Harry seemed to be now. "What the fuck? You presumably went out, bought a variety of stationery, heart-shaped stickers, and chocolate, then took your time writing the note, arranging the stickers just so..." He couldn't help it. Picturing Harry doing that, and for him, no less, was just too much. Severus started laughing.

For a split second, Harry actually looked scared, green eyes going wide, but then he started laughing too.

"Yeah...yeah, I guess it is a little ridiculous, isn't it?" he asked between giggles.

"Not to mention the fact that you came all the way to Hogwarts after sending it, to...what? See how I liked it?"

Harry nearly snorted as he set his teacup down on the coffee table, and that only set off Severus' laughter once again. He couldn't even remember the last time he'd laughed with someone like this.

"Yeah," he admitted, shrugging. "I didn't have anything better to do."

"You need a job," Severus teased, feeling far lighter and more carefree than he had in awhile. "It's been, what, over a year since you graduated?"

"I told you, I'm taking some time off to figure things out. Maybe you could learn something from _me_ for once. A break would probably do you some good as well."

"Yes, well, not all of us are blessed with heaps of gold waiting at Gringotts. I need to work."

Harry's lips twitched ever so slightly, and Severus knew exactly what he was about to say.

"Don't even think about it," he ordered, glaring at the younger man for good measure. "I won't accept your money, Harry. I'm not a charity case."

"Well, anyway," Harry said cheerfully, returning his attention to his tea. It was a painfully transparent attempt at turning their conversation away from the subject of finances. "I've trusted you with something, what with letting you laugh at my amazing, heartfelt gesture. Your turn."

"It's childish, trying to force me to open up to you like this."

"But it's been working, hasn't it? You're starting to trust me more."

Severus frowned, finishing his tea. He couldn't argue with that. He was, slowly, even if it didn't seem like much in comparison to the way Harry opened up to him so readily, treated him as though he was someone worth pursuing. He got up, walking to his bedroom. He knew what he would share with Harry today.

It took some digging to find it, but eventually, Severus retrieved the old, expensive chess set from his closet, where it had been hiding underneath a steel grey sweater he'd never actually worn. A brief, sad smile flickering across his features, he carried the box back out to the sitting room, setting it on the table in front of Harry.

"Lily gave me this for my fourteenth birthday," he said. That sentence was hard to get out all on its own, but he found that he trusted Harry not to push for more.

Few words passed between them as they unboxed the chess set and set it up, occasionally making eye contact.

"I'm rubbish at chess," Harry admitted with a soft laugh, thumb running over the smooth alabaster of a rook.

"So was Lily," Severus replied, barely louder than a whisper. Was this how it felt to bare his heart to someone, or at least pieces of it?

"So we already know you'd utterly destroy me if we played," Harry said, giving him a playful smirk.

"Maybe you'd learn something from me for once," Severus replied easily, turning his earlier words back on him.

"Maybe," Harry agreed, getting up. At first, Severus was worried that he might be preparing to leave, but instead, Harry just sprawled out on the sofa with him, head in Severus' lap.

"Thank you for telling me," he said softly. "I like it when you talk about her."

"It's getting easier, with you," Severus confessed, another thing he wouldn't have dared to say not long ago, and still wouldn't to anyone else.

"Good," Harry said, closing his eyes and yawning. "You can talk to me about anything, you know."

Anything. The dizzying freedom of so many possibilities was one of the reasons, Severus had tried to hold back. He feared that once he started confiding in Harry, he wouldn't be able to stop.

"Are you planning on taking a nap here?" he asked dryly.

"Mm, might do," Harry murmured, shrugging. "I'm pretty comfy."

Severus rolled his eyes, running his fingers through Harry's dark, tangled hair.

"Most people would still be afraid I'd do any number of horrible things to them if they fell asleep anywhere near me," he commented, still playing with his hair.

"I'm not most people," Harry said. "I trust you. Completely. I find it's quite freeing, actually, and I'm happy to nap with you as often as you'll let me."

He was serious about that, apparently, since Harry really did fall asleep not long after, looking completely open and vulnerable, just like he'd claimed. Sighing, Severus continued playing with the other's hair, glancing at the clock. He had another hour before he had a class to teach.

He read articles in the latest Potions journal as Harry slept, still mulling over his fixation on trust.

"You...mean a great deal to me," Severus forced out as soon as he caught a glimpse of vivid green, Harry blinking up at him sleepily. "I've grown to cherish your presence in my life, and I...even thought your gift yesterday was quite endearing, heart stickers and all."

Harry was right. Trusting someone with his feelings, and having them accepted, felt more like freedom than anything else he could think of.


End file.
